Thoughts from the interface of science, religion, law and culture

After spending several years touring the country as a stand up comedian, Ed Brayton tired of explaining his jokes to small groups of dazed illiterates and turned to writing as the most common outlet for the voices in his head. He has appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show and the Thom Hartmann Show, and is almost certain that he is the only person ever to make fun of Chuck Norris on C-SPAN.

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EVENTS

A long time ago, Kent Hovind caused much hilarity when he claimed that UFOs were “Satanically owned and operated,” but it turns out that this is a pretty common belief among the fringes of the Christian right. Mark Hitchock, author of a recent book on “blood moons” and the end times, is the latest:[Read more…]

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The Freedom From Religion Foundation has successfully forced a public high school in Parkersburg, West Virginia to remove the Bible verse “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” from a gymnasium wall. And of course, some people are upset about that.[Read more…]

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Juan Mendez is a UN Special Rapporteur on Torture. He’s also a victim of torture himself, at the hands of a brutal Argentinian junta in the 1970s. He has an article in Politico expressing his disappointment that the United States, which helped free him from his torturers, has now embraced that very practice.[Read more…]

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It’s probably a good thing to be reminded now and then that not every Christian conservative in the country has sold their soul to Republican tribalism and several of them have stepped up to blast Sarah Palin for her hideous declaration that if she were in charge, waterboarding is how she would “baptize” terrorists. Here’s Joe Carter of The Gospel Coalition:[Read more…]

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Sarah Palin, aka Bible Spice, spoke at the NRA annual meeting last weekend and whipped up her usual combination of half stupid, half morally appalling and all annoying. She actually got wild applause for saying that if she were in charge (how’s that for a frightening thought?), she’d bring back waterboarding in a big way:[Read more…]

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The National Center for Science Education has announced this year’s winners of the Friend of Darwin award, given to those “whose efforts to support NCSE and advance its goal of defending the teaching of evolution have been truly outstanding.” I was very honored to have received this award myself in 2009 and this year it goes to the attorneys in the Dover case: Vic Walzcak, Eric Rothschild, Steve Harvey and Richard Katskee. Science journalist Faye Flam is also receiving the award. Congratulations to Vic, Eric, Steve and Richard, all of whom should have been given this award long before I ever did.

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The New York Times is having a bit of fun with attorneys, putting together a series of videos acting out word for word some of the funnier cross-examinations and depositions they can find. This one is from a deposition where an attorney gets increasingly frustrated with a witness who refuses to say whether his office has a photocopier.[Read more…]

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The Family Foundation, a bigoted Christian right group in Virginia, is asking their followers and Christians across the state to join them in fasting and praying for 40 days in order to stop same-sex marriage. I don’t know why they think that will have any effect, but I say go for it.[Read more…]

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Here’s another one of Glenn Beck’s ridiculous daily staff meeting videos as he shouts at his staff about how America is going to hell in a handbasket and the Bible is the only thing that can save us. I especially like the guy to his left trying to ignore the screed.[Read more…]

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Leave it to Bill Kristol to rush to the defense of racist Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling in the wake of his latest statement putting his bigotry on display. Ironically, Kristol says that we should judge Sterling by his actions rather than his statements:[Read more…]

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One of the most ridiculous arguments we hear constantly from the Christian right is this idea that gays and liberals are in cahoots with Muslims to destroy Christianity. Unhinged bigot Linda Harvey praises Muslim cab drivers who refused to drive cabs with ads for the Gay Games in Cleveland while stillclaiming there’s a Gay-Muslim axis working together against Christianity.[Read more…]

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Jeff Allen, one of the editors of Matt Barber’s new site BarbWire, phones in this column, which is little more than the movie God’s Not Dead turned into a sad attempt at writing about politics. It’s full of the usual strawmen and false assumptions we’ve come to expect.[Read more…]

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Glenn Grothman, a far-right Tea Party state legislator from Wisconsin now running for Congress, has said lots of bizarre things over the years. In an interview with Voice of Christian Youth – America, he said that God is upset with John Kerry for condemning that brutal Ugandan anti-gay law.[Read more…]

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You may recall that a few weeks ago Todd Starnes promoted a story about a kindergarten student who was allegedly told that she could not pray before eating lunch in the cafeteria. Turns out the student’s father is an executive with the company about to publish Starnes’ next book, conveniently about Christian persecution. An investigation concluded that it’s all nonsense:[Read more…]

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The Washington Post reports some very unsurprising news, that most of the Tea Party-affiliated Political Action Committees are raising lots of money to support candidates but giving a very small percentage of it to those candidates and their election committees.[Read more…]